Court: Texas Eastern District
Court
Judge: Rodney Gilstrap
Case Summary
GeoTag sued Canon on Jan 26, 2012
stating that their patent US5930474 was infringed. The patent entitled Internet organizer for accessing geographically
and topically based information, was issued on Jul 27, 1999 and expires[i]
by Jan 31, 2016. The patent was originally assigned to Z Land (owned by
GeaoTag), since then the patent have moved through many hands and currently
assigned[ii]
to GeoTag (source: MaxVal’s Assignment
Database).
The ‘474 patent relates to
network interfaces, which acts to organize information available on the internet
based upon geographical distribution. Plaintiff alleged that search functions
on the ‘Where To Buy’ and ‘Job Opportunities’ pages on Canon’s
website infringe the ‘474 patent. Plaintiff sought judgment in favor, permanent
injunction and money damages associated with attorneys’ fees.
On Jun 27, 2013, the case was concluded
as the parties have filed a joint motion to dismiss the case. Pursuant to the
request made by the parties, the Court ordered that all claims and
counterclaims be dismissed with prejudice and no charges imposed on any parties.
Since 2010, GeoTag has filed many
suits against Yellowpages, AT&T, IBM, Oracle, Best Buy, Target and others.
The suits all claim that the search systems on those websites infringe GeoTag’s
patent.
See case 2:12-cv-00043
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[i]
Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that
automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility
patents
[ii]
MaxVal offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email
alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of
interest are recorded.